The Way I Loved You
by Blue Dogs Can Fly
Summary: He was fascinated by her, the crazy, happy-go-lucky girl who laughed at the sky. CatxBeck, i do not own victorious. Flames Welcome!


**He was fascinated by her, the crazy, happy-go-lucky girl who laughed at the sky. CatxBeck, **

**I do not own victorious.. The song is The Way I Loved You - Selena Gomez.**

_Everything's cool, yeah  
>It's all gonna be okay, yeah<br>And I know,  
>Maybe I'll even laugh about it someday<em>

_But not today, no  
>Cause I don't feel so good<br>I'm tangled up inside  
>My heart is on my sleeve<br>Tomorrow is a mystery to me_

From the first day they met, was where their story began. Freshman Year, Hollywood Arts.

He was from Hollywood Arts Middle School, she was recently moved from Boca Raton, Florida. They clicked, from day one.

'Hey. I'm Cat.' She'd said, smiling and holding a stack of new and heavy books under one arm, a pair of sparkly pumps in the other. They were waiting outside while their parents fussed over registers and paperwork. He was a little reserved with strangers. She was the opposite.

'Beck. Nice to meet you-'

He didn't need to finish. She was laughing at the sky. Beck was at a loss of what to do. So he did the best thing, without knowing, the action that made her happy enough to consider him a friend. He laughed with her. He didn't call her a freak. He didn't turn away and talk to the normal kids. He stuck with Cat Valentine.

They navigated the high school together. Beck doesn't really consider Cat as a friend at first. She's the strange girl who said the weird things in class. But she adored him, convinced he was deprived of all things she valued the highest, sunshine, rainbows and blue skies. And he was fascinated by her.

So it was every lunchtime of Freshman Year that they sat on the football field at Hollywood Arts. Cat would laugh and smile and point at the sky and the sunshine and talk about snowflakes, and Beck would think 'Why am I sitting on some damp grass with a crazy girl?'.

But Cat would smile at him, and give him one of her red cupcakes. Or say something silly and completely random. And he suddenly decided he wouldn't rather be anywhere else.

Beck Oliver didn't know why.

_And it might be wonderful  
>It might be magical<br>__It might be everything I've waited for,  
>A miracle<br>Oh, but even if I fall in love again  
>With someone else<br>It could never be the way I loved you_

At the freshman dance, early December, Beck finds himself asking Cat as a date. She's thrilled. They stay until the very end, punch in their plastic cups, talking, laughing, dancing. Cat's a cool dancer- she likes everything, even old rubbishy songs, the songs everyone sits out on. They kiss during the last song. It's a reckless, fun kiss, and it doesn't mean anything to them. Beck finds himself drawn into Cat- and everything she does. She confesses, on the walk home, that it was her first kiss. She blushes as she says so, and shrinks away a little.

Beck has to make her feel better- somehow. He says it was his first kiss, too. He lies.

And Cat smiles. And for some reason, that makes the lie okay.

On Valentine's day, Freshman Year, Beck arrives at HA to a grinning Cat holding a white envelope. 'For you!' She squeals and claps, and he takes it. Inside is a red-heart-shaped card with a sparkly bunny on the front. The words, 'To Beck,' are in glitter pen. Inside it reads, 'Love Cat xxx.'

He blushes, and thanks her. They skip (well, Cat does) to class. Cat is giggling of daisies this time, but Beck isn't listening. He's planning how to make her a card before school ends. When the bell rings, Cat is presented with a pretty pink card with red heart stamp decorations. On the inside, he slipped some stickers from the art room, of smiley faces and miniature suns. And wrote, 'Lots and Lots of Love, Beck xxx.'

For a minute she looks at him doefully. 'What?' he asks, worried. Was his card rubbish enough to make her sad.

'What, Cat?' he asks again, desperately.

'I only gave you _some_ love. You gave me lots and lots. I'm a bad person!' She's frowning and blinking rapidly. It's the first time he's seen her sad like this, all because of a stupid card.

'Wait, hey, Cat. It's fine, don't worry. Look, if you write in my card, lots and lots of love Cat, then we're even.' He fished around for a pen, and opened the card. Cat brightened.

'You sure?'

'Yup. Just add in the Lots and Lots.'

'Kaykay!' she says, happily. Beck sighs, problem over.

He'll always be there for Cat. Whenever. Wherever. Whatever.  
>***<p>

When Beck broke both arms skateboarding, he had to stay in hospital overnight. His mum was late from work and his dad was in Vancouver on a business trip.

It was Cat who walked from school to the hospital to see him and give him a sunflower and a get well card. She promises to bring cupcakes soon. Cat sits there for ages, until his mum came, telling jokes, laughing. He taught her how to say hello in Chinese and Italian. She repeats the words, carefully, seriously. He watches.

He still has the sunflower, under some books in his RV. Beck forgot it was there, actually.

Sophomore Year, HA. September 1st. Cat's in a new homeroom this time.

Jadelyn West arrives in Beck's class. She likes the look of Beck, he, she decides, has missed out on the things she liked most, scissors, blood and bitchiness. And he falls under her spell.

Of course, Cat isn't left out. Beck introduces her, and they get along. Despite that they were opposites, they both had one thing in common- they adored Beck. And for some reason, this helped Cat and Jade get along.

That lunchtime, they sit at the asphalt cafe, talking about scissors. Cat asks if they could go on the field where they used to go.

Beck says nothing. Jade laughs.

Things were changing.

Soon Jade is the one who goes around school with Beck. Jade is the one who goes over to Beck's RV and does homework. Jade is Beck's world. In a way, he likes it. Jade is more secure. She knows what she likes, and has her opinions straight. With Cat, you were always guessing.

Time passes. He goes to Vermont for Christmas with Jade. Skiing. They spend easter in Jade's dark room, talking. Outside, five streets away, Cat is having an easter-egg hunt with her little cousins . She remembers how last year Beck came and had to climb the tree to get the last gold egg for her.

Time Goes On. Maybe a little part of him misses the girl who once gave him a valentine card with a sparkly bunny, who walked all the way to the hospital from school when he broke his arm, who made him smile at the simplest things, and who made his freshman year the best it could be. He sometimes wonders, as he walks down the halls of HA with Jade, where she is. What she's doing.

It was a bigger part than he realised.

_Letting you go is  
>making me feel so cold, yeah<br>And I've been trying to make  
>believe it doesn't hurt<em>

_But that makes it worse, yeah  
>See, I'm a wreck inside<br>My toung is tied and my  
>whole body feels so weak<br>The future may be all I really need_

It's December, Junior Year. Jade is at the hospital with her mom, visiting relatives. Beck walks past a house with yellow paint and a purple-and-white door. He knows that house.

It's Cat Valentine's. He remembers, suddenly, the days of freshman year they spent in the front lawn, groaning over homework.

He hasn't thought about that in a long time. It's painful, and this shocks him a little.

He walks past. Cat is on the roof, with someone that looks like, well, Robbie, a geeky boy he knows from school. They're laughing, despite the cold.

It reminds Beck of the days when he used to laugh with Cat, on that damp grass in freshman year.

So much has changed, and Beck realises he's lost, inside, one of his best friends.

He still doesn't realise Best Friends, is another way for him to avoid saying, The Girl He Loves.

_And it might be wonderful, yeah  
>It might be magical, uh oh<br>It might be everything I've waited for,  
>A miracle<br>Oh, but even if I fall in love again  
>with someone else<br>It could never be the way I loved you  
><em>

They get accepted into different colleges. He hardly sees his redhead friend now. Time is always filled with more Jade, Jade, Jade.

Things are happening so fast, sometimes he wishes he could go back to the days when you didn't need to worry about college and summer jobs. And he's starting to miss Cat a little more each day.

Xmas Eve, 24th December. Jade's gone on holiday to Boston. Beck's sitting on the roof of his RV, a can of coke in his hand. His breath puffs, and he's shivering slightly. Inside, you can hear the Oliver Parents watching TV, cups of hot coffee in their hands.

'Beck?' It's Cat's voice, from the ground. 'Beck?'

He shifts and some snow falls, landing, with a squeal, on Cat's head. 'Cat?'

'Yeah,' she shakes her head and wipes snow off her eyes. 'Can I come up?' She hasn't come to his RV in years.

'Sure.' He moves and reaches down. She's light, and he gets her up easily.

'Yay.' Cat smiles. Her hair is dusted in white snow. 'I brought you a Christmas present.' She holds out a green and silver wrapped present. It's small and light, and he takes it, muttering a thanks.

'I gave yours to your mum.' He says awkwardly after a while. Cat brushes snow off her hair, again. Silence.

'Remember the time in freshman year, when it was so hot that we got the water hose from my lawn and decided to spray eachother?' Cat says, bumping her feet on the side of the RV. It makes a hollow tune. 'We got soaked in the end.'

Beck smiles. 'Yeah. And we went inside and your mum went absolutely mad.'

Cat laughs. 'She grounded me for 2 weeks. I missed your birthday.'

'You got me some daisy chains and a bright yellow ukulele after, though.' He says, matter-of-factly.

'Yeah... it was a pretty rubbish birthday present.'

'No way. The ukulele was really cool. Best present I ever got, even now.'

'Thanks, Beck. But you got a film camera last year from Jade. A yellow ukulele and some daisy chains don't really compare.'

She doesn't sound bitter, but maybe just a little lost, like he was once.

Beck looks at her, sideways, and realises how much she's changed. Cat's so pretty, now. She'd been cute, since the first day they met, but he never realised she was _beautiful_ in that way. As he looks, she draws a snow-angel in the frost covering his RV, and laughs. But she looks sad. There's a silence.

'What happened, to us, Cat? What changed?.' He says softly, saying each word carefully. He catches her hand.

She turns to look at him, and stares for a minute. For the first time, he sees no light in her brown doe eyes. She's sad. Lost. Lonely.

'I really don't know.' Cat says finally. Her eyes are glassed. 'But I wish I did.' There's another silence, and then Beck helps Cat down.

'Merry Christmas, Beck.' She calls, walking down the dark street.

'Merry Christmas.' Beck whispers, and climbs inside. 'Merry Christmas, Cat.'

_Like a first love,  
>the one and only true love<br>wasn't it written all over my face, yeah  
>I loved you like you loved me (Oh)<br>Like something pure and holy  
>Like something that can never be replaced<em>

It's the summer before college. The hottest summer in LA for 20 years.

Beck's passing the LA Smoothie bar, Jade under his arm, when he sees a familiar face, Cat. Cat with brown hair. She's sitting next to a dark haired boy, holding his hand, in a booth. Beck recognizes the boy as someone he knew from Hollywood Arts, but not very well, maybe in the year above. They're sharing a Smoothie, Cat is laughing at something the boy said. And she sees Beck with Jade. A flicker of a smile crosses her face, and Beck looks at her. For that one second, they just look, revisiting the years they laughed together. The moments they shared.

Beck turns to Jade. She's got her dark sunglasses on, and is picking at her tattoo on her arm. It's like switching from two different worlds, and when Beck turns back, Cat is talking to the boy. He brushes her hair from her face, a simple gesture. Cat grabs the boy's hands playfully, and he laughs.

They may have shared something, Cat and Beck, they might've had something. And Beck knows he'll forever remember the happy days he spent, laughing and innocently in love with Cat Valentine, that crazy, impulsive, happy-go-lucky girl. And maybe he still is. Who knows? But for now, it just isn't right.

Reality is different.

And that's just the way it is.

_And it was wonderful,  
>It was magical,<br>It was everything I've waited for,  
>A miracle<br>And if I should ever fall in love again  
>with someone new<br>Oh, It could never be the way  
>No, It will never be the way<br>I loved you_

-The End . Please Review, flames welcome. :]


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